Sunday, March 30, 2014

OBSERVED BEHAVIOR 2 (FROM NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION)

Photography is capable
of recording most of the emotional and action expressions of an individual,
although not necessarily
in the senseof the nineteenth-century investigators of human behavior.
In their accounts of expressive
behavior, such pioneers as Wundt
and Darwin used sketches and still photographs to illustrate body posture, gesture and facial
expression, but failed altogether to take into account such considerations
as those of social
context and the role and position of the human observer.
It is well to keep in mind that any
kind of observation of behavior – with the exception of
behavior observed through one-way screens – occurs in two-person or group situations.
The very fact of being
observed changes, through feedback,
the actions and emotions of the
observed individual; actions formerly
intended for self-consumption then become a statement to others.